Each year billions of Conversation Hearts are sold for Valentine's Day. Since food and computers don't mix (though sometimes we do use candy like Conversation Hearts or M&M's in the lab) and many schools don't allow food-related projects these days, here's how to make your own High-Tech version of Conversation Hearts!
To create this you will be using PowerPoint to make your images (yes, you can make images in PowerPoint) and a web site, Picasion, to create the animated GIF.
First, create your hearts in PowerPoint
Set your Slide Layout to blank.
You can optionally change the size of your slide so it's square which won't leave as much room on the sides of your heart as in the example which just used the default slide size. To do this, go to Design / Page Setup and change the height to match the width.
Add a background color, if desired, by right clicking on your slide and selecting FormatBackground. Your completed animation will have a background color so if you don't change this, it will be white.
Using the drawing tools (Insert / Shapes), draw a heart on your slide. Fill the slide with your heart. Change the heart color and effects using the Format tools for the shape.
Type your text by clicking on the heart and typing - there's no need to add a text box. Change the font, font color, font size, etc. Remember this is a conversation heart so your message should be short - 2 lines maximum, 4-6 characters per line including spaces. Yes, you can use texting language on these but be appropriate!
Duplicate your slide using New Slide / Duplicate Selected Slides
Change the color of your heart and the text on your heart. For the best animation result, it's probably a good idea to leave the effects on all of your hearts the same.
Repeat steps 5 & 6 to create additional hearts. You can create a maximum of 10 and should have at least 5.
Save this as Grade-Name-ValentineHearts. This will save your PowerPoint as a PowerPoint Presentation.
Save the individual images by selecting Save As (Hint: Click the Microsoft Office Button, the circle with the colored squares on the upper left, to find this) / Other Formats / PNG and click Save and then select Every Slide. This will create a new folder named Grade-Name-ValentineHearts that contains all of your images named Slide1, Slide2, etc.
Use the Choose File or Browse option to select your images from the folder you created in step 10 above. You will need to use the Add one more picture option if you created more than 3 slides (and you should have). Do not add more than you need. If you have 10 slides, your 10th slide may be 2nd in your list of images so check the file names when you upload.
The defaults for Size and Speed are probably good (that is what the image above uses) though you could override the size to Big. You don't want it too fast or people can't read your text.
Click Create Animation!
If you upload an animated GIF to a Goggle Site using Insert/Image, it will no longer animate. Since we want these to be animated, you will need to use Direct Link from Picasion. Copy the Direct Link and paste this in to the notes section on the first slide of your PowerPoint. HINT: Look at the bottom of your slide. Save your PowerPoint.
Save the animation with the name Grade-Name-ValentineHearts.gif
Finally, add your animated GIF to your Google Site
Create a 3rd Quarter post on your Google Site and title it Valentine Hearts
Write an explanation of the assignment. Make sure you explain what you did and what tools and websites you used including a link (text link, not URL) to the website where you created your animated GIF!
Insert Image but instead of uploading select the Web Address (URL) option and paste in the Direct Link that you pasted into the notes section of the first slide of your PowerPoint.
Write a reflection about the assignment. Did you like it or not? Why? What did you learn?
To create this you will be using PowerPoint to make your images (yes, you can make images in PowerPoint) and a web site, Picasion, to create the animated GIF.
First, create your hearts in PowerPoint
Next, create your animated GIF
Finally, add your animated GIF to your Google Site
Did you know that you can make suggestions for new sayings on Conversation Hearts? Check out NECCO's FAQ for how you can this! You can also take a virtual plant tour and see how NECCO makes their Conversation Hearts.
Thanks to Simon Haughton for the animated GIF idea!